as i'm sure many of you will notice when you try to click a link, whysper is in a bit of a mess. this is the last section of the site i'm changing over to php, and until the changes are complete and the link check is done, well, it's going to be a mess. mostly the archives will be a mess. i deliberately started with 2004, the most recent date because i wanted to be able to update. oh, yes, we have stuff to update!

my brother called this weekend to tell us he had found us a house. 2 bedrooms but with a finished room in the basement that can be made into another bedroom (away from the kids even! oooooo, the privacy!), 2 baths upstairs and a room with the plumbing off the basement but in need of fixtures. it needs paint and a new set of stairs (the ones there are really steep) for the back porch, but has a fenced, tree covered back yard, a 1 car garage, and is about a mile away from the busiest thoroughfare in atlanta - which would give saxy a place to start looking for work. we were all excited and he asked for the info he needed for the application, then said he'd call back with an address for us.

an hour or so later, his wife calls and says she found us a better house! 3 bedrooms, bigger space, 2 car garage, backyard (the fencing apparently needs replacing), and only $175 more. then she collected a little more info and now we're waiting to see which house we get! it's just a relief to know we're not going to be sleeping in a backyard or garage while they still look for a place. the biggest problem, other than price, was the cats. we can't be rejected because of the dog - she's a service dog and by law can't be refused or a reason for refusal. but the cats were a problem, places either didn't want pets or were asking for some hefty security deposits. apparently house #2 isn't asking for a deposit and house #1 is asking for a deposit that could actually be considered reasonable.

we have a house! well, almost, but good enough to say, "we have a house!" lol

course, we now have another mess developing that's going to make this trip even tighter than we thought. i think we'll be okay, we'll make it, but it's going to be rough. see, linnorm wasn't able to give me the full child support on the 10th. usually this isn't a problem, but something bounced in the checking account. according to MY records, nothing should have bounced. i keep my checkbook with some very cool checkbook software - it does better math than i do, and i am a stickler for putting everything in. if i don't put it all in within a day or two, i forget, and that does lead to problems. but i've been seriously trying to keep track because of this move. i knew we couldn't risk any issues with it at all.

despite that, something did bounce, and i'm more than a bit miffed about it since everything should have been sufficiently covered. now, if the ex had put in all the child support, this wouldn't have been a big deal - enough would have been in the account to cover the bounce fee and nothing else would have had a problem. but since we were shorted, there was no buffer for the fee when the ex put in his child support. we tried to cover it, but, of course, once one thing bounces it becomes chain reaction, especially at our current income level. now the account's a mess and we're going to be short money for the trip trying to unmake the mess so we can close it.

and (oh, yes, there's more) the disconnect notices are all coming in . . . for this month. lordy, why couldn't they have made the dates for, like, july 3 or something? so now i have to at least make payments, or try to get the due dates moved. i guess i'll try to do that, although i'll feel bad doing that and then calling to disconnect just before we leave. but at least i can tell them an address to send the final bill to by then. you gotta do what you gotta do. once we have jobs in atlanta, we should be able to start paying things off. that's the initial goal anyway.

my brain is seriously starting to hurt when it comes to managing our survival here and preparing for this trip money wise. i will be so glad when it's back to just trying to get everything paid and this move is over.

i think i'm going to go back to messes i can do something about and work on whysper. the rest of domynoes is done, for the most part. once whysper is done i have to do a link check to make sure, especially since 2 sections - eloquence and spirit - and one ring (in character) were deleted from the site. anyway, back to work. it's going to take me quite awhile to get through the archives and i want to be through them before we leave next friday! just be patient - it'll all be back online in working order soon.

i hope . . .